Scared but resolute

From the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- There are mysterious knocks on his door at night. His friends ask him not to visit. He declines to allow even his first name to be published.

This shadowy figure, a young Sunni Muslim from Baghdad, is neither spy nor criminal. He is an election worker helping Iraq prepare for its historic national poll, scheduled for the end of the month.

Threatened, attacked, kidnapped and killed, Iraq's election workers are finding that being at the forefront of the electoral process means surviving the frontlines of an insurgency determined to stop it.

Things are so bad that one of the officials from the Independent Electoral Commission, Adil al-Lami, compared the workers to a clandestine political movement. "They function like an underground," he said in an interview.

The influence of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has been huge.  It's easy to imagine these Iraqi elections failing to get off the ground without his support.

Some Shiite workers and voters said they were inspired by Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who backs the elections.

"There will always be the possibility of a car bomb or gunmen, but we have got to vote anyway," said Um Ahmed, 57, the mother of the lawyer who had just resigned. "This is what our religious leaders say we must do, because it will empower us."

Read the whole thing.

Update:  I first found this article at the Assyrian News Agency website.  But the link stopped working.  The article actually originated with the New York Times.

Comments

[Scott]

The links aren't accessible.

[Tom Bowler]

Turns out it was a New York times article. Who would have guessed?

[Scott]

I'm impressed. You know as long as the Times acknowledges its obvious liberal bias and the fact George Bush's re-election, which they hoped against, could not be preveneted, I don't see why publications like theirs wouldn't be 100% for democratic elections in Iraq. Maybe the paper is beginning to show that it is behind them, and I hope so.